Ultrasound medical imaging is used for imaging the heart and surrounding intra-thoracic structures. However known ultrasound image scanning and acquisition systems typically employ a fixed time interval between frames and fail to effectively scan for optimum imaging results for real time clinical monitoring and diagnosis. Known systems employ surface ECG signals for image gating to avoid cardiac contraction noise, for example, but offer limited gating capability for studying particular cardiac functions. Continuous image scanning and acquisition, such as intra-cardiac ultrasound imaging is used to study cardiac operation and treatment. However, known systems fail to comprehensively perform cardiac function tracking of maximum size and volume of ventricle chambers, for example, in the presence of cardiac tissue movement.
Known intra-cardiac ultrasound imaging usually captures a tissue dynamic image with 30-60 frames per second (fps) speed. However cardiac depolarization and repolarization, such as a QRS complex and contraction procedure are desirably imaged at a higher speed for accurate determination of detail of cardiac pathology changes. In known ultrasound systems, the time interval between image frame acquisition is typically equal and fixed (uniform scanning). This may result in missing capture of a fast contraction image frame, such as EoS (end of systolic) and EoD (end of diastolic) time image frame. In known systems for performing continuous ultrasound imaging, the image resolution, scanning speed/rate and sensitivity is not controllable once an image scanning procedure is initiated. Some known systems employ faster, multi-channel (crystal) intra-cardiac ultrasound image scanning with high power (intensity). These systems may over heat intra-cardiac ultrasound sensors and a catheter and may over scan (perform redundant scanning) without capturing useful information, such as during rest time of a heart cycle. Further because of an upper limit on ultrasound image scanning speed, intra-cardiac ultrasound may be distorted by cardiac contraction, patient movement, and other bio-noise (such as respiration). A system according to invention principles addresses these deficiencies and related problems.